Study of ethanol - diesel (E-diesel) blends stability using a renewable ternary additive
Florian A. Y. Pradelle1; Sergio L. Braga1; Ana Rosa F. A. Martins2; Franck Turkovics3; Renata N. C. De Souza3
1 Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro; 2 Departamento de Engenharia Química e de Materiais, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio deJaneiro; 3 Peugeot Citroën do Brasil Automóveis Ltda
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-0633
Resumo
With the shortage of conventional energy and the increasingly stringent emission standards, it is necessary to develop new internal combustion engines with low emissions, high fuel efficiency and high specific power. In this context, the use of biofuels (mainly biodiesel and ethanol) presents an attractive potential as it constitutes a renewable energy source. However, there are many technical barriers to the direct use of ethanol in diesel fuel: indeed, Diesel engines cannot operate normally on ethanol-diesel blend without special additives. Based on a literature review, ternary additives composed of biodiesel and vegetal oil from two renewable sources and n-butanol were synthesized through a Doehlert experimental design. This work studied the impact of four additives to stabilize Brazilian diesel fuel (with 7 vol% of biodiesel, B7) blended with aqueous ethanol, both commercial. Preliminary results showed that high content of biodiesel was required and that high n-butanol content had negative effect on stabilization. Nevertheless, the additives only delayed the phase separation for less than one hour. Consequently, the effect of ethanol concentration and temperature of these four additives were investigated using anhydrous ethanol. In presence of the additive, the range of instability was narrower and, even if phase separation was observed, organic compounds were dragged into ethanol phase.
Palavras-chave: Compression ignition flex fuel motor; Biofuels; Diesel-ethanol blends (E-diesel); Miscibility